teoria_del_big_bang

which one is it ?

Is the motor and spindle in balance if you run it without the wheels ?

All sounds very odd.
 

Its a bit drastic but as you probably can work out to get good balance the wheels need to be balanced themselves and also the spindle and motor need to be in balance before putting the wheels on.
Normally in my work we would have a machine that determines what angle the out of balance is and how much it is out of balance. So on the flange we would then either drill holes at that angle to lighten the point that is out of balance or more often than not there would be a series of tapped holes around the flange we would add grub screws of varying lengths opposite the out of balance.

Now obviously you do not have a machine or the tapped holes but you could do it my trial and error and drill a hole and see if it gets better. If it gets worse you can always tap it and add a grub screw if you use the right size drill, and then drill opposite.

If you can balance the spindle then you can try the wheels on, buying some good quality replacement wheels could help if the wheels are badly out of balance.

I have no idea how the spindle is driven but I am guessing unless an expensive grinder it is a separate motor and belt. In that case if its the motor itself vibrating then you would have to get the motor balanced.

Steve

3 minutes ago, Big Jim Slade said:

My 6nm HA needs 28.5 seconds according to SGPro. That's not full brightness on the panel. I think I ended up preferring longer exposures because they gave a better histogram and averaged out any filter settle at the start of the frame.

30 seconds not too bad, I think my OIII 4Nm is the longest exposure up to 2 mins on some light panels.

Lets see how this one from DSD performs 🙂 

Steve

On 29/07/2021 at 23:29, Louis D said:

There is a hidden 20% VAT now that I think about it in UK pricing absent from US pricing.  Since sale tax varies state by state, county by county, and city by city, it would be impossible to quote it in prices online here.  It comes down to £552.63 without VAT, which is still $772.  I suppose the rest of the difference (~$100) is import tariffs and importer markup.

I have just looked into this about importing astronomy gear and there is 20% VAT, 4% import duty and an extra £8 admin charge to pay before goods are released to you.

Also this charge is on the cost of the goods and postage and packaging and any insurance. It also applies to Gifts not just good bought from a retailer.

One bit I did not fully understand is

You will not have to pay anything to the delivery company to receive goods worth less than £135 unless they’re gifts over £39 or excise goods (for example, alcohol and tobacco).

That doesn't seem fair as why can you only have gifts up to £39 that probably have had VAT paid in country they were bought but you can get retail goods up to £135, that really doesn't make sense to me.

Steve

Oh also when you have balanced best you can and there is still a bit of vibration if you can bolt the grinder down to a bench it will dampen the vibrations further.

Steve

I have spent a lifetime balancing grinding wheels, but ones a meter or two in diameter not on a bench grinder. And these have weights in the wheel hub to balance them, in later days weights that can be moved automatically whilst wheels running using sensors and a wheel balancer unit.

But from experience one main issue might be the bore in the wheel is a fair bit bigger than the hub on the wheel spindle so it is off center so it may pay to shim the bore a little with paper off-cuts. The bore must be slightly bigger than the hub otherwise you may crack the wheel but not too much. Then you would need to dress the outer edge of the wheel so it was also running true.

I would have thought that would be plenty for balancing a wheel on a bench grinder.
You can get heavy and light spots in Aluminium Oxide wheels that can effect balance slightly but these really only show significantly on larger diameter wheels that are running fast at 40M/S and above peripheral wheel speed, smaller wheels running slower will not be affected enough to vibrate badly.

I do not know if any of that helps 🙂 

Steve

I am no expert and although my flats seem to help my final results I am always doubting they are totally correct so taking interested in this thread.

Can you put one of your flats, and the corresponding master flat for the same filter so I can have a look ?

Steve

10 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

I was looking at this too, but decided to not spend a cent on Celestron products if possible.

For not that much more cost you can get a proper power station like a Jackery: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jackery-Portable-Explorer-Generator-Outdoors/dp/B08RNPYLQW?ref_=ast_sto_dp

AC output on the field, regulated power outputs from every socket etc. I dont have a Jackery but do have one like it from another brand (ecoflow river). One of the better purchase decisions i have made.

Looks good. A bit more power which is always useful,  the inverter at 200W (0.8 A)  shold be fine to charge laptops so very handy.
Only real downside is you cannot take it on a plane but then that will not affect many people, certainly at this moment in time.

I must admit if I hadn't got mine for under £100 as it was included with my scope I bought 2nd hand I would also look at alternatives as it is very pricey.

Certainly worth looking at 🙂 

Steve

Ah, its the polar alignment part of the module you need - ah I understand now and yes that makes sense.

Does THIS tutorial help at all ?

Good luck with it all, I am sure it will all become clear to you soon 🙂 

Steve

I have to admit I am a bit lost with this now not having that mount to try.
But I have made a test profile and selected simulator for the mount as you suggested and my Align module does get enabled.

I still am not sure what the Align module would do for you as it cannot align the mount. Maybe it can tell you the error so you can manually adjust it to account for any error ?

Steve

Sorry but I have no experience with the SW Star Adventurer tracker but are you saying that there is no port on them that connects to a computer ?
How do you send it to a target then ?

In Ekos I see there is a driver for this mount so I am a bit confused.

Steve

Ah, I think I have missed one of your comments here in that you say the mount (or tracker) cannot be connected to RPi.
If that is the case then the Align module will not enable because it cannot do anything.

The Align module is used to send the mount to its target and if you have the plate solving software installed basically takes a short exposure and plate solves it to see if there is an error and the mount is not pointing at the target and will then correct this error.

BUT, if EKOS is not connected to the mount it cannot do any of this because it has no control over the mount.

Steve

There is no Mount module there so the Align will not be enabled.

In your profile what do you have in the mount ?

In the INDI panel do you have your mount connected ?

Steve

26 minutes ago, AnonymousAnimosity said:

Hello, a few months ago I bought a cheap guidescope, a T7M guide camera and a raspberry pi 4 to perform polar alignment, dithering and eventually guiding on the skywatcher star adventurer.  I have read the documentation for the "align" module, however I can't seem to get it working, all the buttons in the "align" tab of EKOS are greyed out. Has this happened to anybody else? If you use a similar setup with astroberry and a tracker I would be thankful if you shared your experience.

This is what my Align module looks like.
 

Now you may not have the "Capture & Solve" key enabled if you have not loaded any plate solving software but you should at least have the "Load & slew" key enabled so you can load a previous image and align exactly to same position.

I think I am right in my understanding here, somebody may correct me though as I do not profess to be an expert on EKOS.

Steve

It sounds like either the main CCD camera or the mount is not recognized by EKOS.

Can you put up some screen shots of all your tabs in EKOS as a start then we may be able to see what is missing and point us in the right direction (not intended as a pun but quite funny).

You talk a lot about getting a guidescope and guide camera, normally this has nothing to do with the align module, unless you are trying to align via your guidecam and guidescope instead of main scope and main camera.

Steve

4 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

Great, let me know about the flip flat, as I am keen on one of those too….👍🏼

No problem, I have ordered it with the heater despite my skepticism it may be too far up the dew shield but am keen to try it, that may take a little longer to get any conclusion as I need to be brave enough to turn my usual band off on a cold humid night.

Steve

This post is a bit premature but I have just hit the Buy button on the following from Deep Sky Dad.
So more of a "What the postman will bring" type of post.
Field Rotator

Flip-Flat

These are pretty new items from DSD so maybe a bit of a gamble but they promise a lot for the money and the auto focusser I got from them worked just fine which gives me some confidence.
Also I have had loads of info from Pavle, despite me disturbing his holiday, which makes me pretty confident they are up to the task and there seems nothing else close to these without paying much more.

Since Brexit (Sorry I know that is a bad word on this forum 🙂 ) DSD do not add any VAT to the price so initially the prices seem really cheap.
I have done some searching and from what I can see when they land at the Royal Mail in UK I have to pay 20% VAT, plus 4% import duty, plus £8 admin fee to get the items released.
But still  If they do the job then its still a good price at around £330 (£370 with heater) for the flip-flat and £475 (£488 including the hand controller) for the rotator, including all the taxes etc.

They are on a 4 to 8 week delivery but will try to review them on SGL when I receive them and later when they have been in use a few times.

Steve

Well, I have placed an order for both the Flip-Flat and the rotator.
If they do the job then its still a good price at around 230 (£370 with heater) for the flip-flat and £475 (£488 including the hand controller) for the rotator.

They are on a 4 to 8 week delivery but will try to review them on SGL when I receive them and later when they have been in use a few times.

Steve

Right so after some searching :-

Cost of the rotator and flip-flat gen from DSD is 785 euros, which is a very reasonable £668

I would then get charged 20% VAT and 4% import tax (on not just the cost of the items but Postage & packing and any insurance as well) and £8 processing charge bringing the total to a little over £836.

So whilst I would rather not pay the extra £170 I guess if they do what they promise £836 is not bad for both these items.

Steve

11 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

I have the celestron on the left, and i would never recommend anyone even consider buying it. Complete piece of toxic junk.

It can NOT supply the rated 3A it states, at least my unit cannot. Since it has an internal smart circuit it decides if it supplies power or not, not you. It randomly cut off power during GO-TOs with my relatively low power EQM-35PRO. I am able to replicate this issue 100% of the time by quickly changing direction of slewing. Also the power supply cuts off if the current is too low, like when supplying power for my flat field light panel that has a very low power consumption LED. The LED is on for 10 seconds an then the power is cut off due to being too low. 

Yes unfortunately this is a downside to this small Powertank.
I have the larger version and cannot fault it. Again if you use the 5.5/2.1 mm plug for power it also has the same issue that it turns off if power draw is very low. I had this when using it to power my flat field generator and kept finding that the last of my flats were just wrong because the panel had switched off.
Fortunately on the larger unit there is a second 12V outlet using a cigarette type connector and that is always on and does not get switched off with low current. Also can use USB ports at same time.

So I would certainly reccomend THIS one.

Steve

13 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

I was quoted (Euro) €330 for one to fit an Tak FSQ85, but of course now there is VAT to pay here too….that was not included….

Hmmm, yes, I had just geared myself up to get the DSD Flip-Flat Gen and also the rotator which looks real promising but if I factor in 20% VAT when it gets to UK then things starting to look not so cheap.
Also would I be liable for import tax, or is that just the VAT ? and would there be administration charges on top of this, there so often is ?

Oh my I do not know now.

Steve

I did buy the ZWO supply with my ZWO 1600 but over time also have obtained a couple of other 12V 5A supplies that cam with other gear and they are of no brand I know with mostly Chinese writing but I have used them, maybe because I did not realise they were not the ZWO one, but honestly never had an issue with any of them and all still in good working order.
Chances are under the hood the one in the link has the same, or similar, guts inside to the ZWO anyway and the ZWO is just a premium price because it has ZWO on it, but problem on Amazon is there is some great gear at great prices but also there is some crap on there as well which you do not want taking your cooling circuit out and having to return the camera for repair.

So difficult to say get the £10 supply off Amazon, probably absolutely fine , and again if it fails it more than likely will go open circuit and not harm your camera, but i's not my expensive camera and so I would not like to say definitely yes.

Steve 

So long as it is a decent supply at least 3A (but they are about same price for 5A so get 5A then can be used for other 12V as well) with 5.5 / 2.1 mm plug then can use others.

This This one is about 1/3 the cost.

However, all would say is that if the camera is new, or still in warranty you have an expensive camera (upwards of £800 I guess)  then that extra £20 or so to get the ZWO one from FLO means that if you need to put in a warranty claim then you are fully covered as you have used the recommended power supply bought from a reputable dealer (other dealers also available 🙂 )

Steve

By the way if you load a picture to HERE you can determine where in the sky you are yourself.
Try not to upload a highly stretched with bloated stars, so long as there are enough stars visible then you will get a result.

Steve

Despite all the issues you had looks like you were pretty much on target with NGC 7380 (Wizard Nebula) only just off center of image.

So not a total disaster.

Steve